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USS Excelsior
The USS Excelsior (NCC-2000), also known as The Great Experiment, was a Starfleet starship in service in the late 23rd century and 24th century. It was also the prototype for the very successful ''Excelsior'' class of starship. The Excelsior was originally conceived as a test vessel for the transwarp drive project in the early 2280s. Designed under radically new principles of propulsion, the Excelsior had the potential for becoming the fastest starship in the entire quadrant. At the time, the Starfleet record for FTL travel was Warp factor 14.1 (2800 c''; approx. WF 9.8, TNG scale), set by the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS ''Enterprise]] in 2269. (TOS: "That Which Survives") By 2285, the Excelsior (which still had the prototype registry "NX-2000" back then) had finally completed construction and preliminary tests in Earth Spacedock and was days away from its first full field test of the transwarp drive, when it was unexpectedly called for duty. The crew of the USS Enterprise, attempting to rejoin Captain Spock's katra with his regenerated body, had hijacked their former ship. Captain Styles, confident in his new "incredible machine," ordered a pursuit as the Enterprise entered warp, fleeing the system. However, Captain Montgomery Scott, assigned as temporary chief engineer of the Excelsior, had sabotaged the ship's transwarp computer, leaving the Excelsior dead in space — it had to be towed back to spacedock. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) Following this embarrassing failure, the Excelsior spent the next two years in spacedock as its transwarp drive was refined, but despite the engineers' best efforts, the Great Experiment never made a successful flight. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) : The apparent failure of the transwarp drive is debated by some fans, but the ''Star Trek Encyclopedia mentions that the Excelsior showed different computer display graphics on the bridge in Star Trek VI, indicating that it was no longer equipped with a transwarp drive.'' Despite the failure of the transwarp drive, the Excelsior remained a sturdy spacecraft. It was refitted with a standard warp drive and relaunched in 2290 under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu. It was then assigned to a three-year shakedown cruise, cataloguing gaseous anomalies in planetary atmospheres in the Beta Quadrant. In 2293, as the Excelsior was returning to the Federation following the successful conclusion of its mission, it was struck by a powerful subspace shockwave caused by the destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis. Later that year, following the arrest of James T. Kirk and Leonard McCoy on charges of assassinating Klingon chancellor Gorkon, Captain Sulu ordered an aborted raid into Klingon territory in an ill-advised rescue attempt. (VGR: "Flashback") The Excelsior also played a key role in preventing the assassination of the Federation President at the Khitomer Conference, helping the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)|USS Enterprise-A]] to destroy a rogue Klingon Bird-of-Prey in orbit of Khitomer. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) The Excelsior remained in service well into the 24th century; by 2370 it was in service along the Federation's border with the Cardassian Union. In that year, it was assigned to help search for the missing [[USS Hera|USS Hera]]. (TNG: "Interface") : There's no direct proof that the ''Excelsior mentioned in "Interface" was a different ship; therefore, this article assumes that the same ship is still in service.'' Related topics *List of USS Excelsior personnel